Davy Crockett

Davy Crockett was an American frontiersman, soldier, and politician whose 49-year career produced his role at the March 6, 1836 Battle of the Alamo — and his subsequent transformation into one of the defining 19th-century American frontier-hero narratives. He was born David Crockett on August 17, 1786, in Greene County, Tennessee (then part of the State of Franklin in the Southwest Territory). His father John Crockett was an Irish-Scottish-American Revolutionary War veteran and Tennessee tavern keeper, and his mother Rebecca Hawkins was an English-American homemaker.

His Tennessee frontier upbringing across 1786–1812 — including his 1798 12-year-old hired-out cattle drive across Virginia and his 1799 escape from his own father — shaped his subsequent autodidactic frontier-hunter career. His 1813–1815 Tennessee Militia service under General Andrew Jackson — across the Creek War campaign and the 1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend — launched his early military career. His 1817–1821 Tennessee state-legislature career and his 1827–1831 and 1833–1835 U.S. Congressman from Tennessee career produced his 1830s American national political profile.

His congressional opposition to President Andrew Jackson's 1830 Indian Removal Act — and his consequent 1831 and 1835 Tennessee election losses — produced his 1835 westward migration to the Mexican Texas territory. His January 1836 arrival at the Alamo Mission in San Antonio de Béxar — and his subsequent participation in the February 23–March 6, 1836 13-day Mexican Army siege of the Alamo under Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna — produced his death on March 6, 1836, at age 49. The historical accounts of his death continue to be debated by historians (whether he died fighting in the final Mexican assault, or whether he was among the seven Texan defenders captured and subsequently executed by Mexican order).

His subsequent posthumous American cultural legacy across the late 19th and 20th centuries — particularly Walt Disney's 1955 ABC television three-part Davy Crockett series (starring Fess Parker) and the subsequent 1955–1956 American Davy Crockett coonskin-cap commercial-merchandise craze — produced his 20th-century American frontier-hero narrative reach. The 1955 Disney theme song "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" sold over 10 million copies across the late-1955 and 1956 American singles charts.

His name Davy began as the English diminutive of David (from the Hebrew Dawid meaning "beloved"). Davy was a popular American boys' name through the mid-20th century.